Disabled Portsmouth resident blasts city after car is covered with snow

Wednesday

Jan 8, 2014 at 2:00 AM

PORTSMOUTH — The city needs to tweak the operations of its sidewalk snowblowers, which, during the past two snowstorms, buried the back of Stan Zabecki's Mazda with snow and filled in his parking space, he said.

Elizabeth Dinan

PORTSMOUTH — The city needs to tweak the operations of its sidewalk snowblowers, which, during the past two snowstorms, buried the back of Stan Zabecki's Mazda with snow and filled in his parking space, he said.

"They can aim it someplace, but not on my car," said Zabecki, a disabled resident of Margeson Apartments public housing. "It's nice that they do it, but they gotta do it right."

Zabecki said he went to a store on Saturday and when he returned, his parking space was filled with snow that was blown in by a city sidewalk snow-removal machine.

"I couldn't get back in," he said.

The property maintenance man was gone for the weekend and Zabecki couldn't reach anyone from public works, he said. Unable to shovel snow because of his disability, Zabecki said he parked on the street and notified police.

"I have a parking space," he said. "I told the officer — and I was nice to him — that I'm parked on the street now and if my car is hit, the city is responsible."

During the previous snowstorm, Zabecki said, snow from a city sidewalk was blown by a city snowblower over "the whole back" of his car. During the same storm, a sidewalk snowblower also spewed mounds of snow into residential driveways on Maplewood Avenue.

To free his car from the blown snow, Zabecki said he rocked it back and forth, alternating between drive and reverse, then gunned it.

"If I was in my car at the time, I wouldn't have been able to get out," he said. "I was thinking about backing my car into the snow and pushing it into the street."

Had Zabecki done that, he could have been penalized by the city.

According to City Attorney Robert Sullivan, a city ordinance bars anyone from depositing, or causing to be deposited, snow or ice onto public property. The penalty, Sullivan said, is a fine of up to $1,000 per incident.

According to the city attorney, when offenders have been notified in the past about dumping snow from private property onto city streets, sidewalks or lots, they have stopped. But in one instance last year, he said, the city took legal action against a professional snow-removal contractor for clearing snow off private Bow Street property and leaving it in the street. The case was settled with payment to the city, though Sullivan said he couldn't recall the name of the contractor.

Conversely, Sullivan said, when the city moves snow from public roads and sidewalks and leaves some behind in private driveways, it's considered in legal realms to be "within reason."

"Nature dumps the burden of snow on everyone," but the city bears a greater obligation to keep roads and sidewalks clear, Sullivan said.

The city has "no authority" to dump snow from public property onto private property, but it's often impossible to clear roads and sidewalks without doing so, Sullivan said.

Rice said city employees are supposed to adjust the periscope-shaped attachment on the sidewalk tractors to direct snow away from driveways. But a lot of factors are at play that can affect the outcome, he said.

Rice said veteran employees can maneuver the heavy machines and direct snow where they want with ease, while newer employees are less accurate. He said city workers are focused on not hitting anything and sometimes don't realize they're in a driveway until it's too late. Windshields on the sidewalk tractors also fog up, operators get tired after going hours on end, and wind blows streams of snow off intended courses, he said.

"They're very challenging to operate," Rice said of snow-removal machines.

Zabecki said he understands that snow is left along driveways by passing street plows, but he isn't understanding about sidewalk blowers that can aim snow.

"Burying someone's car is inconsiderate," he said.

Rice said his investigation showed that Zabecki's car was parked in an area with a blind corner that a city employee was unaware of, but is now.

"It's not that we don't care," Rice said. "There are a lot of pieces of equipment and folks going back and forth at the same time. We try to do the best we can, but mistakes do get made."

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